Risks of binge-watching: Insomnia, poor sleep quality, and others

Scientists say that Binge-watching makes it hard to sleep, causing fatigue, insomnia, and low sleep quality. According to Tech Times, the results are not much strange, but the research tries to give an insight into the trendy binge-watching.

What’s Binge-watching?

When people spend several hours watching TV in just a sitting, they tend to be more alert and discard sleep – this is Binge-watching. It’s not exclusive to televisions, but also includes the smartphone, tablet, laptop, and computers.
The scientists from the University of Michigan made 423 young adults respond to questionnaires that sought to know their binge-watching lifestyle. The young adults between the ages of 18 to 25 answered the questionnaires which were also meant to ascertain their pre-sleep cognitive arousal and sleep-related problems.

The data showed that about 80% of the people that answered the questionnaire engaged in binge-watching last month. Of the 80%, 28% did this a few times, 40% did it once, 14% few times in a week and 7% almost binge-watched every day.

The researchers evaluated the data using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and observed the relationship between binge-watching and poor sleep quality. The result showed that those who involved in binge-watching were 98% more vulnerable to poor sleep quality unlike those who don’t don binge-watching. Also, the risk of fatigue, insomnia and poor sleep quality increases with more binge-watching.

According to the researchers, the bigger part of this issue is pre-sleep arousal. They added that binge-watching stimulates the brain and even when it’s the right time for the person involved to go to bed. As such, causing sleep disorders.

Researchers proffer intervention as possible solution

The scientists know the effects of excessive viewing and suggest intervention as a key to curtailing it. They went on to say that intervention will cut down pre-sleep arousal and call for better sleeping habits. According to the researchers, streaming sites are the major contributors to the many binge-watching practices today. The streaming sites allow viewers to watch many episodes of a series at a go. The researchers also observed that the viewer gets glued to what they watch more that they intended to, perhaps the quality of the shows are high.